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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Thrifty Gifts For Mom And Moi

I've gotten a lot of mileage out of a cone of silk noil I bought at a garage sale. Yesterday, I dyed yarn for a Mother's Day gift I need to get started PDQ. The little rice steamer I bought at a thrift shop to use for natural
dyeing also works like a charm for small-batch steaming of acid dyes.

And I finally finished and blocked a gift for myself that I've been working on off-and-on for more than a year. This freeform looping vest was made from cotton yarn I got from my sister-in-law's BFF after she cleaned out a relative's estate. I overdyed the yarn in the indigo vat.

My closer-to-my-size dress form (bought at a garage sale) is still in a local store displaying willow-dyed scarves I have for sale there. This smaller dress form, also from a garage sale, is at least four sizes different from me, so the back looks almost bell-like on her.

On me, though, it skims right where I wanted it to skim, and I love the cross-knit looping edging.

I make a lot of stuff I use, and a lot of class samples. Sometimes, those are one and the same, like this little pouch I made working along with students in the current session of my New Age Looping Basics eCourse. It now holds the card reader for my computer.

But the freeform vest is the largest project I've made just for myself and just because in a long time. It's too casual to be impressive, and 99.9% of the world will look at it and assume it's crochet. I don't care. I'm a jeans-and-boots kind of girl, and I love it.

I phoned Mom to tell her I finished a gift for myself so hers might be a little late (since I hadn't started it yet). She said, "I know you'll enjoy wearing it as much as I enjoy wearing the things you make for me." She's right.

I'll keep you posted on what I'm making with the silk noil. In the meantime, if you're looking for an idea for your own gift-making, here's a link to last year's how-to on the Mother's Day Corsage-ish.

Honestly, most of the time I get more enjoyment out of making gifts for other people than out of anything I make just for myself. But I'm feeling pretty special because someone who really knows me and is exactly the same size and shape as I am spent all this time on a gift for moi. I might do it more often.

You could inspire me to do that. So tell me: What's the best gift you ever made for yourself, or one you're working on or planning?